Law Commons^™

Nudging People To Become Organ Donors: An Opt-Out System That Does Not Presume Anyone’S Consent, Alex P. Garens

Alex P. Garens

Faced with a dire organ shortage, many state legislatures have recently explored alternatives to the current system of registering organ donors. One promising proposed alternative is to switch from an “opt-in” to an “opt-out” model of recording organ donation preferences on forms administered in connection to state-regulated task, such as obtaining a driver’s license or identification card. Unfortunately, these proposed “opt-out” models garnered little support as they were largely misunderstood and improperly likened to the archetypal presumed consent systems in Europe. Crucially, this paper distinguishes the proposed “opt-out” model from presumed consent systems in key ways, thus demonstrating that the …